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Articles by Eric Althoff

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MAX to play Jammin’ Java in Vienna, Virginia

Wow, it's been a while since something got us off our feet this briskly. MAX will be pulling up to Jammin' Java in Vienna, Virginia, Oct. 29 for some pre-Halloween festivities. Tickets are $18 to $30 by visiting JamminJava.com.

October 21, 2015
"Back to the Future Part II" predicted the Cubs would win the World Series in 2015.

USA Today wraps Wednesday edition in joke ‘Back to the Future’ cover

The Cubs win the World Series, cholesterol may in fact cure cancer and rehydrating pizza slices can be deadly. All of this according to the gag cover of USA Today featured prominently in a scene from the 1989 film "Back to the Future Part II," in which Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown (Christopher Lloyd) travel forward in time from 1985 in an effort to keep Marty's son (Mr. Fox in another role) from going to jail. The date of their arrival: Oct. 21, 2015.

October 21, 2015
A still from the segment “The Night Billy Raised Hell” in the horror anthology "Tales of Halloween."  (Digitaljournal.com)

MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Tales of Halloween’ offers mixed bag of seasonal horrors

The blessing and the curse of the anthology film is its variety of tone and subject -- allowing for a smorgasbord of style and story from multiple filmmakers. So brace yourself, because here comes "Tales of Halloween," an anthology that offers some genuine fun set amid other tired bloody yarns as the annual costume bonanza that turns fear into sugar-coated joy is nearly upon us.

October 15, 2015
Playboy founder Hugh Hefner poses at the Playboy Mansion in the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles in this April 7, 2006, file photo. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, File)

Playboy to stop publishing photos of nude women

It revolutionized the sexual revolution, but Playboy magazine will stop featuring photos of nude women beginning in March, founder Hugh M. Hefner has decreed, as reported by The New York Times.

October 12, 2015
Robby Krieger performs as part of the eighth annual Scott Medlock - Robby Krieger Invitational & All-Star Concert benefiting St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.  (Bo Roberts)

Doors guitarist Robby Krieger raises $500,000 for St. Jude’s Hospital child cancer program

To want to be a rock star requires a certain narcissism to thrust oneself unapologetically before thousands. And it likewise takes great humility to turn such star power to focus on the cause of helping others. Former Doors guitarist Robby Krieger did precisely that earlier this month at the eighth annual Scott Medlock - Robby Krieger Invitational & All-Star Concert benefiting St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

October 12, 2015
This Oct. 10, 2014, file photo shows Malala Yousafzai speaking during a media conference at the Library of Birmingham, in Birmingham, England, after she was named as winner of The Nobel Peace Prize.  The Pakistani teenager, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to promote girls’ education will be honored in Philadelphia. Yousafzai will accept the Liberty Medal on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2014, at the National Constitution Center. (AP Photo/Rui Vieira, File)

Davis Guggenheim calls Malala Yousafzai courageous in new documentary

It's hard enough to imagine a teenager forgiving a playground bully, but to absolve someone who shot you in the head requires a level of grace that is almost superhuman. But that is precisely what Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, a teenage activist from Pakistan, did after a Taliban-affiliated gunman shot her and three of her friends aboard a school bus in the country's Swat valley in 2012. "The danger of film is that sometimes you make someone into this larger-than-life character, but you realize that she was an ordinary girl who was not extraordinary, but she did an extraordinary thing," said Davis Guggenheim, director of the documentary "He Named Me Malala," which opens in the District Friday.

October 9, 2015
Halsey

Halsey to play D.C.’s 9:30 Club

The New Jersey artist known as Halsey explores the "Badlands" -- but not the Springsteen variety -- on this curious new disc for Astralwerks.

October 8, 2015

‘Labyrinth of Lies’ director Giulio Ricciarelli on Germany learning harsh lessons of its past

The ongoing lesson of the Holocaust has been "never forget." But what of those who, in the midst of German reconstruction following WWII, found themselves suddenly face to face with the horrors of what the Nazis had done? The new film "Labyrinth of Lies," opening Friday, tells the true tale of prosecutor Fritz Bauer (Gert Voss), who seeks to try former Nazis who not only carried out the atrocities against Europe's Jews and humanity, but also abetted in covering up their sins. "My first reaction was I didn't believe it. I said this can't be true, this story," director and co-writer Giulio Ricciarelli.

October 7, 2015
MEW band members, from left to right, Johan Wohlert, Nick Watts, Jonas Bjerre, Mads Wegner and Silas Utke Graae Jorgensen.  (Tommy Jensen Bredesen)

MEW returns with new album and tour

Returning after a six-year break, Denmark's pride, MEW, is back and heading for D.C. this weekend with a new album, "+ -" behind them.

October 6, 2015
Demi Lovato's new album "Confident" album cover.

Demi Lovato to release ‘Confident’ on Oct. 16

If anything, Demi Lovato is a mistress at grabbing our attention. The singer and actress, who recently posed nude and sans any makeup for Vanity Fair, is back with "Confident," a high-concept, high-energy album for Hollywood Records that shows off Miss Lovato's talent for crafting venerable synth-pop.

October 6, 2015
Patrick Wilson (right) stars with Ashley Judd in "Big Stone Gap," which opens Friday.  (altaridentity.com)

Patrick Wilson returning to Big Stone Gap for film premiere

They say you can never go home again, but actor Patrick Wilson has done precisely that for his new film "Big Stone Gap." "We settled there a couple hundred years ago," Mr. Wilson told The Washington Times of the eponymous town of Big Stone Gap, Virginia, where he and his brother would return for summers to visit their grandparents. A road and a bridge in town even bear his family name.

October 6, 2015
In this image released by Lionsgate, Ellen Page appears in a scene from "Freeheld."  (Phil Caruso/Lionsgate via AP)

Ellen Page calls ‘Freeheld’ story crucial to gay rights movement

On June 26 the Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage the law of the land. It was the capstone of a lengthy war and many smaller battles along the way. One of those skirmishes was fought in Ocean County, New Jersey, where, in 2004, a county police officer named Laurel Hester, dying of cancer, fought to have her pension bequeathed to her partner, Stacy Andree upon her passing. "I think that [the conversation] will just continue changing like it has," Ellen Page, the Canadian actress and Oscar-nominee for "Juno," said of the new film "Freeheld," in which she portrays Ms. Andree.

October 5, 2015
Stevie Wonder performed Saturday evening at Washington, D.C.'s Verizon Center for nearly four hours.   (Eric Althoff)

Stevie Wonder calls to conquer gun violence with love

Stevie Wonder took the opening moments of his concert at Washington, D.C.'s Verizon Center Saturday evening to call attention to the ongoing epidemic of gun violence in America, as exemplified by the mass shooting at Oregon's Umpqua Community College in the town of Roseburg last week.

October 5, 2015